leyton.org

I do apologise about the notable “running theme” the last wee while. But then, I’m rather enjoying it and, well, this is my website after all. Plus I have to have one of the best running routes I think I could ask for (have a look at my recent pictures if you don’t believe me!).

Anyway, I was just thinking I need another ‘challenge’ on the nikeplus website, having finished the first one with my friend in London (what happened adam?). Anyway, this evening I got invited to participate in the UK team for “Race Across the Pond”. This is…

A collaborative race from the UK to the US. The first team to run across the Atlantic (London to New York, 3471 miles) wins. By accepting this challenge you will be supporting the UK team. Good luck to everyone

… which I thought was an absolutely marvellous idea. Not only is it a fun challenge for everybody - distance running pro or newbie like me to take part in - it’s also a super way of building a community and a friendly rivalry. It seems to have caught the imagination of folk on the board, and whilst the UK is lagging behind quite a bit, the plea for signups has gone out from the main bulletin board (hence how I found out) to websites and webloggers. I’m sure we can give the USians a run for their money.

Now I don’t know many folk with Nike+ systems, but if you don’t have one and are a runner, it’s a great way of tracking your progress (you don’t even need Nike trainers. See my previous post for some ‘hack’ links). I’m certainly finding it a great way of adding an extra element of fun to this new hobby.

You can find out more here at runpl.us, and sign up for the challenge (or drop me a note and I’ll pass it on. I’m afraid I’m not in the habit of putting folks’ e-mail addresses up here. We all get enough spam!). It’s certainly showing that the Nike+ and iPod are spawning quite a community of innovations and ideas.

The geek in me is also slowly working out how to get the data off the iPod and looking to feed it in to other systems. Another website I’ve recently found out about from Gordon is Fetcheveryone.com, which is great for tracking details and seeing your own progress in relation to others. And extrapolating it out.

It’s certainly clear that geekery and running are two activities that are feeding off each other quite well right now!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 24th, 2006 at 10:06 pm and is filed under Running, UK. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.